The science of wave transfer physics is often difficult to explain to those untrained in physics, particularly where the transfer medium remains in place as the waves travel therealong.
The concept of a so-called "sports wave", however, is easily understood. Most attendees of sports functions such as baseball and football games have participated in such a wave. Members of the audience stand and sit in a sequential manner along a usually clockwise, direction in a plane, taking their cues for action from direct observation of the approaching wave. This gives the appearance of wave-like motion.
The concept can be applied to large geometric extents, such as across the continental United States. However, it is difficult to coordinate and to view such a large number of persons standing and sitting, since the distance of the viewer must be substantially distant from the participants to view the overall effect.
The wave transfer function could be used to participate in a national event occurring across a large expanse such as the continental United States. One such event is the celebration of the Y2K phenomenom, signifying the turn of the century occuring on the last day of December of the year nineteen ninety nine. The wave could track the arrival of solar midnight and would take about four hours to traverse from Maine to California. Should such a wave be staged on a national or even on a city-wide basis, some means of indicia must be employed to provide accurate optical and acoustical portrayal of the wave.
One example of an inter-active means for teaching science is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,865 entiled "Methods and Apparatus for Teaching Science and Engineering" wherein an inter-active multi-media computer system is used to simulate the performance of scientific experiments on a computer screen.
An earlier U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,479 entailed "Method and Apparatus for Broadcasting Live Events to Another Location and Producing a Computer Simulation of the Events at That Location" utilizes a computer-coded description of the sub-events that constitutes the event and stores the coded description in a centralized computer data base.
One purpose of the invention is to describe a simple arrangement whereby participants within a large area could create a two-dimensional plane wave, so-called "national wave" to co-celebrate an extrodinary event.
An additional purpose of the invention is to describe how such a wave can be generated and viewed by a large audience along with the requisite co-ordinationate timing of sound and light on a city-by-city basis.
A further purpose of the invention is to provide a teaching aid whereby students are able to visualize and comprehend the transfer of energy by the application of geometric wave physics as well as teaching the populace about the concept of wave generation.